1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a cushion and more specifically to a shopping cart cushion for use by a child within the rear mini-basket of a shopping cart.
2. Background of the Prior Art
Providing a seat cushion for use by a child within the rear mini-basket portion of a typical shopping cart is well-known. The prior art discloses many such seating devices. U.S. Pat. No. 4,204,695 to Salzman, U.S. Pat. No. 4,416,462 to Thompson, U.S. Pat. No. 4,568,125 to Sckolnik, U.S. Pat. No. 4,655,502 to Houllis, U.S. Pat. No. 4,666,207 to Quartano, U.S. Pat. No. 5,106,155 to Luehring, U.S. Pat. No. 5,238,293 to Gibson, U.S. Pat. No. 5,354,121 to Allum, U.S. Pat. No. 5,547,250 to Childers, U.S. Pat. No. Des 308,614 to Gordon, and U.S. Pat. No. Des 367,197 to Fuchs are exemplary of shopping cart seats for use by children. These prior art devices, while providing varying levels of comfort and effectiveness in their intended purpose, suffer from at least one of several drawbacks.
These drawbacks include seats that lack a high degree of comfort to the child. By providing little or no cushioning to parts of the child's body that make contact with the cart, these seating devices are undesirable. Many devices have limited use in that they will properly fit into a limited number of shopping cart types. Other devices are bulky and thus impractical to transport by the average user. Still other devices are unduly complex making them cost-prohibitive to manufacture.
Therefore, there is a need in the art for a shopping cart cushion that overcomes the problems associated with prior art devices. Such a cushion must be relatively soft and resilient providing cushioning to all parts of the child that contact the cart. Such a cushion must be useable with a broad range of shopping cart types. Finally, such a cushion must be relatively simple in design and construction and should be relatively compact and easy to transport.